I’ve written a lot about the dearth of fun, engaging and interesting comics in today’s market. Alan Moore’s ABC (America’s Best Comics) line of books from WILDSTORM a few years back was one bright light in the gloom of ‘grim and gritty’ superhero comics. Titles like PROMETHIA, TOP 10, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN and TOM STRONG were all so very fascinating and wonderful to read. Of those, my favorite was TOM STRONG. TS was a pastiche of influences like DOC SAVAGE, FANTASTIC FOUR and SUPERMAN. It had a terrific science ficiton base, and the characters from the book were constantly getting caught up in multi-dimensional spanning adventures. Fun and high-concept were the rules of thumb for TOM STRONG. Chris Sprouse’s art for the book was always great… he’s one of the most overlooked, amazing artists in this business.

During the period back when Mark Waid had been removed by Bill Jemas off the FANTASTIC FOUR assignment, and I had left in support of Mark– I got a few offers from folks for books they thought I might be interested in. One of those offers was from Scott Dunbier at Wildstorm. He called me during that time to ask if I’d be into drawing a TOM STRONG arc with another writer than Alan Moore. By that time, Moore was winding down the ABC line, and he had turned TOM STRONG over to other creative teams to finish up. I was very enthusiastic about the opportunity, and conveyed that to Scott. He told me he would work up a list of possible writers for me to choose from and get back to me. That return phone call never came. I tried to get back in contact with Scott a few times, but never could get him on the line peronally– I only reached his voice mail. So that opportunity died on the vine. I never knew why Scott didn’t get back to me– but I still think about it from time to time. Now, the ABC line is a thing of the past– it no longer exists. Moore and Kevin O’Neill are still, thankfully, doing LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN at Top Shelf Productions….. but the others are just memories.

At least I’ve still got those great comics around to read and enjoy when I need a ‘fix’.

OK… have a great weekend, all.

This is Entry 334.

Mike